Setting short-term, concrete goals

An update on my progress: I achieved my sub-goal of a finished rough script by June 30!

Having this publicly stated goal helped me on a couple of days when, otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have got to work. I was able to remember how important this goal is to me.

Also, I’ve found that clearly delineating the tasks for each sub-goal has helped tremendously. The sub-goal of “write script” is still somewhat intimidating. I broke it down: “write rough outline. write detailed outline. write introduction section.” etc. I could tackle one or two tasks per day and make continual progress.

Again I encourage others to announce their goals and projects on this thread. It’d be interesting for the rest of us, and it may help to keep you on track and assure completion.

toward a vegan world!
steven

an update on my progress!

I will say that I have quasi-succeeded at my sub-goal for July. First, I feel success because:

1. In a literal sense, you could say I succeeded. I “selected all the footage” for the video, yes: I collected 13 minutes of clips that I’d like to use, plus some still images—more than I even need.

2. In the sense that veganism is a process & our effort is what counts, I feel success. I’ve been working more diligently on this project than any other activism in the past, and I feel very excited about the quality results so far.

But! I feel it’s only partial success because:

1. Along with “selecting all the footage,” I was, less explicitly, planning to have the clips arranged in order, paired up with lines from the script, ready to be edited together. But I’m only part-way through this task.

2. I haven’t collected all the still images and graphics that I’d like to use in the video’s sections on veganism. For those sections, I plan to make bulleted lists and possibly other graphics that I still need to create/obtain. This was another less explicit goal I had for July, and it is not yet completed either.

So I don’t know exactly what to call this, but I am still very excited about the project, and I will continue full-force!

* * *

Lastly I want to note a few things about the way I’ve been approaching this project:

- Stating the goal publicly has been a powerful motivation. It helps get me past laziness or other barriers and just sit down to work on a task. After I sit down and get started, usually the laziness is replaced with excitement about the project, and I’m able to get a lot done.

- Dividing the goal (“create activism video”) into smaller projects (“write script”) and breaking those projects into smaller tasks (“write rough outline”) has been enormously helpful. To have a clear list of 15- to 45-minute tasks has made real progress achievable. If I can just sit down and do the task, then I make concrete progress.

- I’m less confident about how I’ve set specific deadlines for each project. First, it’s hard to estimate in advance how long each project will take, so I may end up rushing certain parts. Second, it adds stress–a sort of “must” (& therefore a sort of hierarchy; I’ll write a blog post about this soon). So the deadlines have made it harder to experience veganism as a joyful, flowing experience. This recurring stress has, of course, made it harder for me to remain peaceful and calm in the face of daily frustrations. I consider my everyday peacefulness to be related if not integral to my veganism, so this is a concern for me. (The problem might just be that my deadlines this summer have been too ambitious..?)

I’ll report on my progress again around the end of August!

toward a vegan world!
steve

note: i posted this update on july 24 because i’m leaving for a trip on the 25th and won’t be back until august.

Another update on this goal. Today was my projected “finish line.” To be honest: I did not finish the video yet. This feels a little awkward to me, actually, because I made a big deal of posting this goal–and then I did not, strictly speaking, succeed at it.

I have come close. Almost every piece is gathered and ready. Once I get on a computer to actually compile the pieces–video, images, narration–it shouldn’t take very much work. I’ve got the timeline indicating where every clip goes. I’ve recorded the narration. I’ve created the images of bulleted lists and text for the sections on veganism.

A couple things are holding me back: I don’t have background music for the video. Some kind of somber background music will help the flow of the video, because some video clips have sound and some are silent. I’m waiting on a close friend to finish some original music that I will use. Also, I’m waiting for a friend to convert a video clip for me (into a file type that I can use in the video editing program). Lastly, I need to gather just a few more still images–either from the public domain online or from my own camera–to accompany certain lines of the script.

My heavy course-load this fall–which just began–is making my progress on these last items a little slow. I don’t anticipate finishing the remaining tasks at lightning speed; rather, I will work on this during the weekends over the coming month(s?).

Again, it is a little awkward (and disappointing, and funny, actually) to me that I did not ’succeed’ at my posted goal. But I am very happy to look and see what did get done. It reminds me of what my friend said about being idealistic and ambitious (they probably took this from another source): ‘If we shoot for the stars, we might at least miss and get the moon.’

so i got the moon,
steve

Hello all,

I have another update and brief reflection on this project. Even if no-one is very interested, I think this is even helpful for me to write this to myself.

Recently I’ve re-recorded the narration for the video and found some music to use in the background of the main sections. I am pretty happy about these things. I have a few miscellaneous images to find yet, but the big task ahead is simply to compile the video on a computer. Since I’ll be using a computer lab and an external hard-drive, I want to do this in one or two SOLID days of work, rather than split over weeks of gradual progress.

Since the summer, I’ve really wanted to finish the video project because I’m about 90% done with it and it will be a great resource once it’s available. My schooling this fall has been busier than usual, however, and when I find time to do some solid work for L.O.V.E., I’ve been more interested in writing blog posts because I’ve had so many ideas for those and because I really enjoy writing.

Still, I’ve been getting more serious about finishing this video project. It’s been several months since the “finish” date, and I’m starting feel a little ridiculous about that.

I recently had the idea to work on the video over my winter break, but it turns out that that won’t work because I need to use on-campus computers to do the editing, and those labs will be closed over break. Then I had an idea to do the editing during exam week, since I figured that most of my busywork will be done by then. But I’m finding that I have a lot of reading that I’m going to end up postponing until exam week because of the papers I need to write before then.

Right now I am planning for the first weeks of the semester starting in January. I usually have a lighter workload for the first few weeks of the semester, especially because my writing-center job doesn’t start until the third week. My goal right now is to completely finish the video during those weeks.

In other news: Possibly over break, but sometime in the coming months anyway, I’m thinking of making more videos for my Youtube account, as those are quick and easy. I made one video on that account in March, and it has received over 1,200 views, I’ve received a 4.5 star rating, and 28 people have subscribed to my “channel.” It’s been a reliable source of hits for our website, and I’ve received so many wonderful comments about it. The video took less time than an average blog post to create, so this strikes me as an effective way to reach people with this message.

toward a vegan world,
steve